ULA and Blue Origin enter production agreement for BE-4 Engine

United Launch Alliance (ULA), and Blue Origin, LLC, a privately-funded aerospace company owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, have signed an agreement to expand production capabilities for the BE-4 engine that will power the Vulcan next generation launch system.

The BE-4 engine America-made alternative to the Russian RD-180. Development is on schedule to achieve qualification for flight in 2017 to support the first Vulcan flight in 2019.

"This agreement gets us closer to having an affordable, domestic and innovative engine that will help the Vulcan rocket exceed the capability of the Atlas V on its first flight and open brand new opportunities for the nation’s use of space,” said Tory Bruno, president and chief executive officer of ULA. "This partnership enables each company to leverage its strengths, with ULA bringing production excellence and mission assurance, and Blue Origin bringing innovative engineering concepts and a commitment to lowering the cost of spaceflight."

"The BE-4 engine test program is well underway with more than 60 staged-combustion tests already on the books," said Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin. "This new agreement is an important step toward building BE-4s at the production rate needed for the Vulcan launch vehicle."

The BE-4 is a liquid oxygen, liquefied natural gas (LNG) rocket engine that delivers 550'000-lbf of thrust at sea level. Two BE-4s would power each ULA Vulcan booster, providing 1'100'000-lbf thrust at liftoff. ULA is teaming in the development of the BE-4 to enable availability for national security, civil, human and commercial missions. Development of the BE-4 engine has been underway for more than three years and testing of the BE-4 components is ongoing at Blue Origin’s test facilities in West Texas.